What do Netflix's forays into the WWE, NFL, and FIFA Women's World Cup mean for MLB?

Will Tavlin recently penned an essay in N + 1 Magazine examining the effect Netflix has had on our collective television viewing habits, and the knockdown effect on the men and women who produce the content itself. I won't spoil the ending — you know it already, even if you haven't thought about it — but it's not a happy one.

Why, then, all the excitement about Netflix's coming for live sports? First, there was Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul, a fight more memorable for Tyson's bare-butt interview and incessant buffering issues than the result itself. (Spoiler alert: not the most satisfying ending, either!) In two days, Netflix will attempt to stream a Christmas Day doubleheader featuring Chiefs-Steelers in one game (1 p.m. ET) and Ravens-Texans (4:30 p.m.) in another.

On Jan. 6, Netflix will deliver its much-anticipated debut of WWE Raw. In 2027 and 2031, it will stream the FIFA Women's World Cup. In a rational world, we would wonder what Netflix has done to deserve this. (Maybe ask the creator of Squid Games.)

There is a hype machine building around Netflix's entry into live sports that, merited or not, makes sense in a world where "follow the money" is the only rule of law — for sports properties, their media partners, and the institutions that cover them.

"There are going to be a lot of headlines about this deal saying, 'here comes Netflix,' but really, this is still kind of dabbling in sports to me," Puck's John Ourand said of the NFL's Christmas Day doubleheader in an interview with NPR on Sunday.

In other words, this is a trial run. Netflix might have killed Blockbuster, and transformed Hollywood into one cog in a larger video content-producing engine, but it has yet to prove it can handle live sports. The NFL is boldly dipping its toe into the Netflix waters in a couple days, but there's a long ways between two regular season games and the kind of deal Amazon Prime just negotiated with the NBA.

Netflix didn't bid against Amazon, or ESPN/Disney, or NBC/Universal when the NBA's media rights were up for grabs over the summer. But it might in 2028, when MLB has the opportunity to move into its post-RSN world by entering into a long-term, national rights package with a streaming service (beyond the occasional Apple TV+ Friday night game, or its Sunday package on Peacock).

There are a lot of forms that MLB package might take; one involves some combination of Netflix and traditional cable outlets. It's easy to envision that one. Netflix (the world's 24th-most valuable company) has the money and the global reach. Cable outlets have existing subscribers who know where and when to find live games. This future offers a relatively frictionless transition from the present.

To get there, Netflix has to borrow from the often-quoted advice of Joe Maddon: try not to suck. That's easier said than done when it comes to airing a live stream to an audience as large as the one the NFL offers. But it has to start somewhere.

The audition begins in two days.

Home/Sports Media